Tony Clement’s plans for the party

Using micro-targeted policies and politics to attract specific, narrow groups of voters is a strategy the Conservatives must abandon if they are to find their way back to government, says the newest entrant in the party’s leadership race.

While longtime Ontario politician Tony Clement is proud of the federal party’s record in power, the political landscape around the world is changing and the Conservatives need to change with it, he said in an interview Thursday.

One need only look at the recent political upheaval in the United Kingdom, and the potential for it in the U.S., to know what Clement is talking about.

“People have been the victims of a number of economic forces that have converged and no one in Washington or London was listening to them,” Clement said.

“That’s what creates the dissonance, this feeling of abandonment. That’s what we have to avoid in this country.”

There will come a time in Canada when people feel about the current Liberal government the way they did about the former Conservative government — that it’s time for a change.

Some in conservative circles don’t believe that day will come as soon as 2019, and want to focus on provincial candidates like Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown or Tory MP Jason Kenney as he seeks to unite the right in Alberta.

But Clement, who served in the Ontario government before jumping to federal politics, said politics moves too fast to count anything out. The Tories need to start rebuilding broken relationships now.

“We’ve got to do that through our leadership and through the way we comport ourselves, the way we communicate, the way we train, policies,” he said.

“All of that gets us to the table.”

The Conservatives were elected in 2006 on a tightly focused platform and maintained a targeted policy approach through their time in power, rolling out waves of niche tax breaks like those for kid’s activities or volunteer firefighters in a bid to lure small but tactically key segments of voters.

For one thing, that’s created an overly complicated approach to doing your taxes, Clement said, promising to sweep those away in favour of a fairer system. It’s also not necessarily the Conservative way, he added.

“Conservatives are best when we’re wholesale politicians,” he said.

“We have a standard internally consistent philosophy of fiscal probity, lower taxes, government spending efficiently on national projects that there’s a lot of buy in for, strong military, these are all things we agree on as Conservatives and that’s what we’ve got to project.”

Along with the boutique tax cuts were political efforts that were always aimed at winnable ridings.

So-called wedge issues — doing away with the long-form census, a decision Clement himself spearheaded while in cabinet, or banning face veils at citizenship ceremonies — became a cornerstone of the Conservative strategy.

The Tories need to broaden their appeal, not narrow it, Clement said.

“Our targeted ridings get smaller and smaller every time, the ones we could potentially win, until you’re at a point where you don’t have enough ridings to actually win an election.”

Clement formally entered the leadership race this week, the fourth contestant in the mix after Kellie Leitch, Maxime Bernier and Michael Chong. It’s the second time the party has held a leadership race and the second time Clement has run — he finished third to former prime minister Stephen Harper.

He’s in better shape this time around, with more experience, better ideas and broader support under his belt, he said.

More is already pouring in via social media, a medium Clement has used extensively in recent years to reach out. He’ll need help now managing all his accounts, he said.

Clement said he’s also not opposed to help from another direction.

On Friday, he’ll sit down with businessman Kevin O’Leary, who told The Canadian Press last week he was weighing whether to launch his own bid or find another candidate to support instead.

Clement said he’d be honoured if O’Leary were to give him his blessing.